In reading Karen Price’s recap of last night’s frantic signing action for the Trib, I was struck by Neal Huntington’s quote about giving Cole a minor league deal instead of a big league one:
“The record-setting signing bonus on a minor league contract is something to be proud of,” Huntington said. “There are times where a pure minor league contract and minor league signing bonus, paid out over nine months, is better than a major league contract paid out over five-plus years, depending on how the deals are structured.”
I think this is a pretty notable feat, both for what it says about Huntington and his front office and their skills as negotiators and for future reference when thinking about negotiating with Boras clients.
Let’s start with Huntington’s position coming into the draft/signing period. I have no doubt that the team feels a bit burnt by Pedro Alvarez’s big league contract. I’m not sure if Pedro burned an option this year (and if he hasn’t he still might if he’s demoted today to make room for Jose Tabata), but it’s obviously possible that using an option on Pedro in 2009 because of his big league deal could be a long-term hindrance for the club as he obviously needs more development time than what was anticipated in 2008. It’s highly unlikely that Cole won’t reach the big leagues before 2013 or 2014, but if he gets hurt, if he struggles, etc., it’s good to have the cushion.
The other thing that Huntington has to worry about right now is a 40-man roster crunch this coming winter. There’s obviously no chance that Cole is going to pitch for the Pirates in 2011, but with a big league deal he’d have to be put on the roster right away. Using a spot on Cole immdiately would take a roster spot from a Jordy Mercer or an Aaron Pribanic or a maybe even an Andrew Lambo this winter. That’s obviously not something the Pirates want to do, and it gives them some flexibility to be able to add Cole to the roster when he’s ready to pitch for the Pirates and not before. They may not want to take Matt Diaz off of the roster this winter, but they’re much more likely to be willing to do so next August or September (the absolute earliest Cole will be in Pittsburgh) and if he’s not ready until 2013 (a more likely scenario), it’s even less of a problem for the team.
Now, consider Boras. I’ve always thought that Boras doesn’t cause as many problems as people think, so long as teams are willing to play his games and do what he asks. The problem, though, is that he asks for big league deals for almost all of his college age players. He got one for Strasburg, who he’s compared Cole to quite a bit this year, and he even got one for Bryce Harper. He got one for Anthony Rendon, despite his injury worries and his falling in the draft. He got one for Pedro Alvarez, even though Pedro didn’t sign one to begin with. Boras always pushes the envelope forward, but if you’re not willing to push with him you end up in trouble.
Still, in this situation he worked with the Pirates within their needs and the needs of Cole (who obviously can’t go back to school to try and improve his draft position because even if he would make more money, it’s unlikely it’d be worth more over the lost year in the minors and the additional risk of another year in college) and even though Cole doesn’t come out of this draft with the most guaranteed money, he gets the biggest signing bonus in history. The Pirates get their player without having to add him to the 40-man and affect their roster crunch, Cole gets a ton of money, and Boras still gets to save face with a notch on his belt.
That’s how a negotiation works, and it’s something to keep in mind the next time the Pirates draft a Boras client.
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